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U.S. Constitution is short, debate long

Educating youth on the constitution of the United State is a prime civic duty. (AP Photo)

Carl Tepper

Kenny Ketner

Grace Rogers

The three little words that can still unsettle Washington today, were written and signed in September 1787:

“We the people ...”

Those opening words of the Constitution imply a limit to the power of the nation’s elected officials because of citizen voters.

Grace Rogers, retired government teacher at Coronado High School, knows how she would begin a class on the Constitution.

“If I were going to teach the meaning of the Constitution, I would just look at the Preamble. They tell you what they’re trying to do: They’re trying to form a more perfect union, to get away from the Articles of Confederation, and find a union,” she said.

According to the educator, the Continental Congress didn’t really authorize delegates to create a whole new union.

“They just wanted them to revise the articles of Confederation. Well, they did not just revise them, they set them aside and formed a true union,” she said.

Rogers noted the fathers of the new nation established a three-branch government at a time when they had only had a legislative body.

“The Continental Congress pretty much ran everything. Then they set up a president, and that was very controversial to set up a president because they didn’t want to emulate a king. But they knew they needed an executive branch, and of course they would always have the legislative branch.”

She said, “The legislative branch was supposed to be the preeminent branch, I believe. It did not turn out to be quite that way, but it is the first branch mentioned, and it’s given the most definitive — what they call enumerated — powers. There were fewer enumerated for the executive and the judicial.”

According to Rogers, that has changed.

“The legislative branch doesn’t seem to be the preeminent branch, and I think that is partially because the role of the executive — the president and vice president — has been expanded through time and through authority and practice.

“I think the legislative branch of Congress has, I would say, shot itself in the foot with its own partisan wrangling.”

Carl Tepper, chairman of the Lubbock County Republican Party, said, “The mystery about the Constitution shouldn’t be that much of a mystery. It’s very short; it’s not a very long read.”

He said, “There’s really not a lot to interpret about it. It’s pretty clear, and the doctrines are clear.”

According to Tepper, however, there have been volumes of work written about the Constitution. “But the actual document itself is very short and very easy to read.”

Kenny Ketner, chairman of the Lubbock County Democratic Party, considers the Constitution to still be the supreme law of the land.

“We still live by laws passed by the U.S. Congress. I think the real crux of the issue is that people are ignorant of our own history.”

He said, “I think the founding fathers did make a lot of original contributions to the structure of our government that were unique in the world at the time. There was a lot of enlightenment thought at the time that was just philosophical, but this was really the embodiment of the finest thinking of that era in a body of laws.

“It was a bold experiment in government, and the fact that it has held up so long is a testament of its strength.”

Tepper said of the founding fathers, “They were very suspicious about any kind of centralized power. They wanted to ensure there was a separation of these powers.”

He said, “They purposely wanted laws to be difficult to pass. They wanted changes to the Constitution to be difficult.”

According to Tepper, the founders, in creating the Constitution, looked at the British, the Roman system, and they read a lot of Socrates and Plato.

He said they also looked at portions of the Old Testament containing the Jewish law, including the books of Exodus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

Ketner said, “There’s a broad statement of civil liberties and individual rights in the Constitution, and I think that’s its primary contribution to the world is really setting up the idea that individuals have rights, and this is what they are.”

According to Rogers, one of her biggest concerns is voters don’t vote.

“We need more people to vote, even people who would probably cancel out my vote — I would like for everybody to vote. In Australia, it’s required to vote.

“And of course if we required people to vote, there would be the crazies who would say, ‘Oh, that’s taking away my freedom.’ ”

Tepper poses this question:

“Is it possible to vote yourself into indentured services; is it possible to vote away your own rights?”